County records new low in child deaths

By HEZRON OCHIEL

Siaya, Kenya: Siaya County’s mortality ratio for children under five years of age has reduced from 100 to 40 per 100,000 live births against national figure of 488, a new report has shown.

In a report by Millennium Villages, a five-year project of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, the United Nations Development Programme, showed that community interventions have played a substantial role in bringing the figures down.

The county’s effort to control malaria – known to cause high mortality rates among pregnant women and children – by issuing mosquito nets is one of the major strides towards lowering the figures.

Blood testing

“We have addressed equity in poor households by distributing millions of free nets targeting pregnant women and children under the age of one year,” said Donald Apat, the Millennium Villages health co-ordinator.

Other preventive measures currently being employed include the Indoor Residue Spraying, where homesteads in malaria-prone areas are constantly sprayed to eliminate mosquitoes.

In past years when the country lacked specialised equipment to tackle the disease, sick children under the age of five were automatically treated for malaria before thorough blood testing.

“But now the country has a policy – Test Treat and Track,” Dr Ejersa Waqo, head of the National Malaria Control Programme, told The Standard on phone.